As technology in wireless communication advances towards efficient band utilization (i.e., global system for mobile communication (GSM), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) or long term evolution (LTE)), a network burden increases. As such, there is a continuous need for reducing congestion at the network. Further, managing many user equipment's (UEs) efficiently is very important from a telecommunication system's perspective as it effects the entire network. As per current implementation, there are cases where network congestion cases are not handled.
FIG. 1A shows a sequence diagram illustrating a method according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a scenario is illustrated in which a UE 100a sends an area update request message to a network entity 100b to perform an area update procedure (such as a location area update (LAU) procedure, a routing area update (RAU) procedure, or a tracking area update (TAU) procedure) in operation 102. After receiving the area update request message, the network entity 100b sends an area update reject message to the UE 100a due to congestion or lower layer (Extended wait time) indication of the congestion in operation 104. The UE 100a, after receiving the area update reject message, initiates a Timer (i.e., T3246) and enters an Attempting to Update State with a mobility management entity (MME) in operation 106. Further, the UE 100a assumes that it is not registered with the network entity 100b and there is no context information of the UE 100a at the network entity 100b, whereas the network entity 100b will be maintaining the context information of the UE 100a in operation 108. Thus, whenever the UE 100a needs to detach, it will detach locally and will not inform the network entity 100b as the detach indication is blocked in operation 110. Further, the UE's context (such as an area in which the UE is located, a temporary identifier of the UE, etc.) is maintained at the network entity 100b and page the UE 100a for any mobile terminated (MT) operation. Finally, in operation 112, the Timer expires.
FIG. 1B shows another sequence diagram illustrating another method according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1B, a scenario is illustrated in which a UE 100a sends an area update request message to a network entity 100b to perform an area update procedure in operation 120. After receiving the update request message, the network entity 100b sends the area update reject message to the UE 100a due to congestion or lower layer (Extended wait time) indication of the congestion in operation 122. The UE 100a, after receiving the area update reject message, initiates a Timer (i.e., T3246) and enters an Attempting to Update State with an MME of the UE 100a in operation 124. Further, the UE's context is maintained at the network entity 100b in operation 126. Due to the congestion, the network entity 100b will not provide any service to the UE 100a so that a detach indication is blocked in operation 128. In this case, the network entity 100b continues to maintain the UE's context even though the UE 100a is locally detached in operation 130. Hence, if any MT call is received for the UE 100a, the network entity 100b would repeatedly page the UE 100a in operation 132, thus leading to a waste of paging resources of the congested network entity. Finally, in operation 134, the Timer expires.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.